• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Giro d'Italia Stage 7: Carrara - Montalcino (222km)

Although stage 6 did not produce a spectacular favorite on favorite war, it did produce a nice battle of breakaways, which certainly as a certain charm and excitement to it.

Stage 7.... Ahhh stage seven. How beautiful you are. Had I been a member of the peleton I might have been too tempted to abandon the race just to go off and experience the beauty of the Tuscan countryside. At 222km we go have one of the longer stages of this year's Giro. Setting off from today's finishing city of Carrara, the stages snakes down Tuscany, passing by, but sadly not through all, cities as stunning as they are famous: Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Volterra and many smaller ones too numerous to name. In my opinion there are few lands more beautiful and idyllic than this. Mountains, hills, vinyards, olive groves, old family farms, small rivers and forests clash in a country as wild and beautiful as it is ancient and civilized. These are the lands that have inspired poets and musicians and writers for centuries. Home to the humanist Renaissance of the 15th-16th century and serving as the inspiration for one of my all-time favorite novels of romance, E.M. Forster's A Room With a View.... Ahhh bella Toscana. The land of my dreams.

The stages finishes, uphill for the first time this Giro, to the hilltop city of Montalcino, famous for some of the best, and most expensive, red wine of all of Italy, the Brunello di Montalcino, from sangiovese grapes. The path up to Montalcino passes through the same white gravel roads, sterrati in Italian, which have gained renown in recent years as part of the Montepaschi Strade Bianchi. The battle will hopefully be more animated than today, with classics specialist duelling with the GC men unaccustomed to this type of terrain. My pick is Pipo Pozzato, still stage win-less over his career in the Giro, to attack late, swallow up a struggling breakaway, and pip Fabian Wegmann at the line.

alt_07new_600.jpg


pla_07new_600.jpg


NOTE: The course displayed above will be changed, but the changes will be early in the stage and not affect the finale. All the sterrati originally included will be ridden and Montalcino is still the finishing city.
 
May 12, 2010
12
0
0
Visit site
Mountain biker

Do you think Evans being a x-mountain biker will be any factor? Is this a good opportunity for him to "do something"?

Or will it be more like the "lottery" in Holland? E.g. GC boys just tying not to get caught behind crashes etc.
 
Mar 11, 2009
5,841
3
0
Visit site
Does anyone know how hard the first climb of the Poggio Civitella is? From Google Earth it looks like the road could be pretty narrow.
 
Nov 24, 2009
1,158
0
0
Visit site
Jamsque said:
Does anyone know how hard the first climb of the Poggio Civitella is? From Google Earth it looks like the road could be pretty narrow.

No idea about how hard the climb of the Poggio Civitella is. Climb by bike doesn't have anything on it, though they do break down the other stage climbs in all their strenuous glory.
 
This will be another beautiful stage. The parcours are just enticing enough to spark off some attacks. The uphill finish should ensure a different rider mix.
It'll take a brave contender to expend the effort with the Terminillo due next.
Brunello di Montalcino........Umm, staying in the cellar for now.:)

ukm_07.jpg
 
TSURURADIO said:
I'd love to see BMC get their s*** together and give this stage a go!

Well, basically that means Cadel needs to get his shit together, because he's the only guy on BMC I can see winning this stage.

I guess Santambrogio is capable of winning it too if he gets into the break and it stays away, but thats a serious hypothetical.
 
BMC are fast becoming Australia's answer to Disco Shack Lance.
I think we are now getting troll baiting in each Giro thread, knowing that ACF will bite every time.
The last thing Evans and BMC will do tomorrow, is waste energy.

Lets try and keep the juvenile hysteria to a minimum, California dreamers.
 
Aug 18, 2009
4,993
1
0
Visit site
Someone to win from the break: Wegmann?

Some GC shuffling when the bunch come to the last climb, because it looks like a good spot for an attack. That climb not that difficult, but too late to catch an escape, and the last few k not flat either. Could Vino help himself out here?
 
May 13, 2009
3,093
3
0
Visit site
taiwan said:
Could Vino help himself out here?

Bingo, the last climb has Vino written all over it. He might try to gain seconds there, with or without a breakaway up front. If they catch the breakaway early, there'll also be bonus seconds to hand out. With a, say, 20-30" gap from the climb and the 20 bonus seconds, you could almost gain a minute with a moderate effort. Vino is still peaking, I guess, but it's not going to last. The more seconds he gains in early stages, the easier it'll be to defend in later ones.
 

TRENDING THREADS